My poetry

I wrote this this year but it is taken from a real experience Freshman year at MMC. Hope you like--please comment.

Driving Through Yankton at Night

I get into the ’92 Cavalier once again.

Boredom, insomnia, sadness, necessity—doesn’t matter,

I crave the daily escape.

Lights outline Broadway—a familiar path

Groceries and randomness, a David Gray CD

“A New Day at Midnight”—I could use this

Cover art and previous conception of the artist promise the renewal I seek

Leaving the K-Mart lot I pop the CD into my Philips portable CD player and drive on

Track 1—“Dead in the Water”—Not exactly what I’d pictured

Head south

Mall, Dairy Queen, Pizza Ranch, “Burger King Lutheran”, bank

Park temporarily in meditation spot overlooking Missouri River

Turn out of parking lot to pass restaurant wearing invisibility cloak—great place to eat

Track 4—heading east until motel silently suggests the end of the known world

Turn around and head back

Stop for Almond M&Ms and Sprite; maybe get some cash from ATM

Track 5—guess this isn’t another “White Ladder”

Am I depressed or is the singer? I honestly can’t tell

God, these houses are beautiful. One day I could live here.

We can have Christmas at my pace with candles glowing through Victorian windows.

Track 6—“You who were born with the world upon your shoulders…”

How did Rufus come into this?

Replay

Yep, definitely works with Rufus.

Bowling alley, airport, car dealership, darkness on town’s edge

Turn in to curvy streets where people insist on driving with brights on

Might not need to if someone had put a streetlight out here

--or anywhere in the town, come to think of it

Chandeliers and winding staircases, brick and stone, accent lighting,

Fences and landscaping—how the “others” live

Maybe one day

Wind around and drive west

Hey high school—or is it middle school?

Find myself zombie-like, yet awkwardly contented

Wow—that’s the high school. I can almost hear the cliques.

Track 8—yet another new development

I house shop for myself and each family member as I sense myself missing them

“Seems to me boy that you’re doin’ alright…”

I shouldn’t have wasted all this gas—should head back.

Skip to track 11—“there ain’t no easy way to cry”—Now I feel like crying

Pull into MMC drive and head up small hill-Track 12

Headlights reflect off chapel stone and windows and I pass under 2^nd floor walkway

Bet the nuns are asleep.

Bet everyone’s asleep.

Feelings rise, not revealing their source

Let it out? Hold it in? What’s my problem anyway?

Bede, Whitby, Corbey, Scholastica, parking stall

Arrange my stuff for hauling to dorm

Foresee many replaying of Track 12

CD ends